The Problems with Trailblazing

I was at a Panera the other day and noticed a RW Emerson quote: ‘Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail’.  Often that quote will inspire me, and as education pushes administrators to be instructional leaders I can see how this idea is catchy.  But today, for some reason the quote simply reminded me of the lessons my father taught me about respecting the wilderness.

My father was a forester.  In the way that superintendents manage a school district he managed a forest, the Caribou National Forest (now combined with the Targhee), about 1 million acres.   He had a company car (lime green) and a company horse (Red).  He had leadership meetings, QLD meetings and company retreats.  The really cool part was the retreat probably entailed white water rafting or horseback rides into the back country.  On one trip, I volunteered to help clear the timber wreckage from a high mountain tornado. We had to ride in as horses were the only vehicle that could navigate the terrain.  

 Gray's Range, Caribou NF
retrieved from www.forwolves.org

 Adventurous in spirit, I would spur my horse off the trail to check out sights and sometimes simply to show how maverick I was.  My father watched quietly from the narrow trail.  When I came back from one spectacular foray through a meadow of breathtaking wildflowers, he stopped me.  “Son, that’s not a good idea.  The trail is here for a reason.  My rangers have laid this trail to avoid problems and to avoid animal habitats.“  Honestly, he would say 'habitats' like that in casual conversation.  “If your horse steps in a gopher hole, it will break his leg.  If you wander into a mother moose, you will be in trouble.  Either way, you just killed a lot of protected flowers.  Stay on the path.”  And with that he moved forward so I could fall in line behind him.  Over time and many trips he taught me that avalanches often happen when people who don’t understand the mountain wander from approved areas, that rock climbers, the good ones, follow established routes so they don’t destroy the rock face, and that every person who carves their name on a tree is scarring nature for all those who will come after them. 

Emerson’s words don’t resonate with my father.  Instead of inspiration he sees soil erosion and dangerous emergency rescues of fools who have wandered off a safe path.  Furthermore, according to Emerson, no one is allowed to follow the trail anyone else left.  Even if it is an amazing trail.  Ultimately, if everyone is heading off where there is no path and leaving trails, the entire world will be one really wide dirt road. In education there is so much pressure to blaze a trail, start a new program, be the first to figure out a new technology.  If we heed RW Emerson, there is little collaboration and certainly no ability to follow an amazing innovation someone else created. 

Why?

I had the blessing of being the head of a district initiative for the past two years, an initiative which no one wanted anything to do with.  Well, not quite no one, but truth be told, I and my job had a hard sell from day one.  Which is why Simon Sinek in his TEDx talk ‘Start with Why’ resonated for me.  I think a part of leadership is helping an organization see the path for the future; however, few leaders are really successful in achieving ‘buy-in’.  This is what Simon studied: why do a few entrepreneurs/companies achieve greatness while many others do not?

Did you know the Wright brothers were not the first to 1. study flight 2. achieve flight?  The crazy thing is they are recognized as the first.  Why?  How about tablets?  Microsoft was well ahead of Apple in developing those.  And yet Apple owns the market.  Or Tivo?  I have a DVR.  It's not as good as Tivo, and it also isn't a Tivo.  Which is also crazy since Tivo invented the DVR but has been a failure in 'selling' it.

Simon Sinek studied this phenomenon and 'coded' the rationale.  The failure is in selling the what and  how.  Entrepreneurs succeed when they sell the why, or what they believe in as opposed to what they do or how they do it.  

In the video Simon outlines what he calls the "Golden Circle".  His point is unsuccessful sales start with the what and/or the how.  For instance, 'we build excellent tablets'.  That is what the organization does.  Simon discovered that when entrepreneurs start with why, or what they believe, those entrepreneurs are successful.  

They start with why and then move through the how and the what.  His contention?  "People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it".

I wondered if this would work as a mission template:  'We believe (why) _______ .  How we do this is _____.  What we do is ______.  Would this at least be inspirational?  

Well, here's my attempt:

We (those wonderful people I work with) believe education; the ability to read, write and think; is a fundamental human need and right.  How we deliver this fundamental right is provide public education to all students regardless of income, race or ability.  What we do is work to develop the best instructional methods possible to deliver the ability to read, write and think to all learners.  

And we do this every day; we do it for all students; we do it together.

Hmmm . . . I like this Simon Sinek guy.

Writing for Leadership Part 2

So, today was the final day of the Writing for Professional Growth series a colleague and I attended through Oakland Schools.  As the facilitator, Joan, handed back our manuscript all covered in red edits, I struggled to find any enthusiasm.  We had rewritten the entire thing twice already.  “Oh, this is so good,” Joan said while I leafed through the marked up pages.  “So much potential.  Lots of edits is a compliment, you know.”  She must have read my disappointment.  “If it wasn’t good I wouldn’t have had a reason to make any comments.”  Man had I heard that idea somewhere before.  Yet again, the parallels between leadership and writing were calling out to be noticed. And I knew she was illustrating still that writing is like leadership.

Good essays start with ‘good bones’

Leadership is about potential.  Joan pointed out that a good essay is about what it will be, not what it is.  If it has ‘good bones’, a good story to tell with meaning, it will become a good essay through work.  So many people talk about the value of capacity building in leadership.  I was just at a lunch where an assistant superintendent was talking about how a potential employee impressed her with his ability to humbly elevate the work of others.  His work was finding the potential in other people and helping them reach it.

Writers can’t see their own writing

Leadership is about re-visioning.  I worked with a writing teacher who spoke about the literal meaning of revision: to see with new eyes.  Because we know what we mean to write we often misinterpret what we have actually written.  It takes someone else reading our words, new eyes, to give us invaluable feedback on what others are seeing.  I can’t think of a stronger parallel to leadership.  What a leader says and what the audience receives are often different messages.  Without a great peer-editor a leader will often be misread.

Sometimes we just need to rewrite

Leaders are constantly redefining themselves.  I can’t remember what the article was, but the author was describing how GM’s true failure in the 2000’s was that it couldn’t reinvent itself from the 1950’s and was still basically the same company. As there are times where an essay, which still has those good bones (GM’s purpose of selling quality cars to the world is a solid one) but must be totally rewritten, sustaining organizations have leaders who can rewrite themselves.

We write for ourselves

Leading others helps us find ourselves.  One of the reasons I attended the workshop was to help my colleague get published; however, what was most interesting to me about this workshop was how it forced me to clarify and organize my thoughts about the work I have been doing for the last two years.  And the most wonderful result was I found there was meaning in my work, a structure and logic of sorts that once written looked pretty darn good, maybe even worth reading.

Failing to Succeed

Imagine my surprise when I recently stumbled across the Harvard Business Review article (April 2011 pg 68-74) entitled Understanding Failure: Why Leaders Don’t Learn from Success by Francesca Gino and Gary Pisano.  As it turns out, failure is the best teacher. If by any chance you’re having a time in your life when things just aren’t turning out as you planned, or in the event that you will (c’mon, you’re in leadership!), you should rejoice in your failure.  According to the article, those people who fail often, fail well and fail purposefully ultimately succeed the most.  Go figure.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the article:

Call it evolution, call it whatever you want—humans are not wired to learn from success.  In fact, success hinders learning.

1.   When we succeed we make false assumptions as to why.

2.   We also become overconfident, believing we don’t need to change.

3.   We only ask ‘why’ when we fail.  We don’t investigate good performance.

Test it out—think of a major success.  Compare that with a catastrophic failure.  Wasn’t it the failure that prompted soul-searing, heart-wrenching introspection?  Success feels great and you might have thrown a party; only failure hurts enough to cause you to change (pity parties can be worthwhile, however).

 ‘Learning is the process of updating our theories’(72). 

1. If we don’t have a reason to update, we won’t.  When we succeed, there is no reason to update theories. 
2. When we fail, we either have to revise our theories or be deemed morons (My wording not theirs--isn’t there some saying about doing the same things and expecting different results . . .).

Be assured, we don’t have to fail, it’s just so much easier to learn when we do.  Interested in learning while minimizing failure?

1. Examine success.
2. Institute a system of project reviews.
3. Consciously experiment.  What is experiment if not a process of testing, breaking and revising hypotheses?

So, I choose to rejoice in this month’s failures! 

1. I am learning more than I ever had.
2. I’ve updated more theories than I knew I even had.
3. I have asked ‘why’ countless times. 

Even better, I think I’ll make a point of failing my way through March.  Now, what can I find to experiment on?

Writing for Leadership

Writing for Leadership

A little while ago I read a post stating that all educational leaders should regularly tweet and they all need to write a regular blog.  I took it as an ‘advance your career’ idea and followed the directions reluctantly: advancing relentlessly is wearisome!  But recently I attended a workshop, Writing for Professional Growth, which opened with the interesting idea that leaders write and writers lead.  As the workshop progressed, I began to see clear parallels to leadership and the writing process.  I also grew to appreciate that by writing, I was adding an important dimension to my daily work in leadership. 

Here is what I learned:

Leaders write and writers learn. (Yep—said it again!)

1. Storytelling is a facet of leadership.  Sharing the story brings attention, support and transparency to my daily work. (Can you believe the Free Press used to have four fulltime writers dedicated to education?  There is almost no visibility for positive stories about education in the news anymore.)
2. Writing is a physical activity.  It’s generative, creative and productive.  Writing provides balance to the voracious reading most leaders must engage in.
3. Writing is collaborative.  Except for a personal journal, writing has an intended audience.  Writing collaboratively makes for a stronger product.

The writing process is the leadership process.

1. Have a vision of where you’re going.  Vision drives planning, and if you have a vision of what you’d like to create, you’ll be more likely to create it.
2. Be clear about what you’re NOT doing.  Sometimes knowing what you’re not talking about helps you know what you are talking about.
3. Know your audience
1. Cater to the needs of your unique audience
2. Match your interests with those of your audience
4. Know your guidelines.  If you’ve got the wrong subject matter, no matter how good it is, no one will pay attention.
5. Polish does matter.  You may only get one chance for a first impression, but it is a great idea to revise many times before publishing.  That way you’ve practiced that first impression many times before it happens!